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Sistina, the longtime Italian restaurant that anchors a five-story Upper East Side townhouse, will expand throughout the building and add its own private members club — and the London club once set to take over the space will no longer be moving in.
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When we first reported on the future of 24 East 81st Street last month, a British operator behind London clubs including the Estelle and Celeste brands had secured a 12-0 recommendation from Community Board 8’s Street Life Committee for an on-premise liquor license, with plans to run a private members club across all five floors of the townhouse between Madison and Fifth Avenues.That’s no longer the plan. A representative for Sistina — the longtime Italian restaurant owned by chef and sommelier Giuseppe Bruno that has occupied the building since 2016 — told East Side Feed the London group will not be moving in after all.
“Estelle will not be coming to the building,” the representative said. “Instead, Sistina will be expanding further throughout the townhouse, creating additional spaces dedicated to dining, wine, private events, and its new membership club experience.”
The members club concept, in other words, isn’t going away — it’s staying in-house. Rather than handing the space to an outside operator, Bruno intends to grow Sistina across the townhouse himself, with new rooms devoted to dining and wine, private event space, and a membership experience of its own.
“Sistina will remain the only restaurant operating within the building,” the representative added.
The change was first reported Friday by the New York Post, which detailed Bruno’s plans to launch a new private club as the next chapter of his Bruno hospitality collection.
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Sistina landed at the five-story 24 East 81st Street in 2016, after 33 years on Second Avenue. At the May 5 Street Life Committee meeting, attorney Donald Bernstein — at the time representing the London applicants — told board members the operators would be “taking it over,” with Sistina then occupying the ground floor, lower level, and second floor. The proposal described restaurant and private dining, lounge seating, a workspace component, and a rooftop with both indoor and outdoor seating, with a maximum legal occupancy of 280 pending the Department of Buildings ALT-1 process.That committee recommendation had been headed to the full Community Board 8 for a final vote. It was not immediately clear how Bruno’s revised plans would affect the pending license application.
East Side Feed has reached back out to the Estelle group for comment on the change.
We’ll provide updates as we learn more.
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